A standard proposal to get voice/video chats into standard browsers has brought Microsoft and Google onto the same side of the table.
The “Object RTC (ORTC) API for WebRTC” (here) provides a framework to embed Skype-like voice and video over IP directly into browsers (instead of having them rely on mutually-incompatible third- …

Mozilla says it will soon begin experimenting with a new streaming video communications system that users can access using only their web browsers.
"And that's all you will need," Mozilla's Chad Weiner said in a blog post on Thursday. "No plug-ins, no downloads. If you have a browser, a camera and a mic, you'll be able to make …

Mozilla has announced that it will add Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for digital rights management into a future build of Firefox, even if the organization disagrees with the technology on principle.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to add EME into the specifications for HTML5 at the behest of Microsoft, Google, and …

Most Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) debates pass unnoticed, because they're very dry and detailed. However, a suggestion that the HTTP 2.0 specification might mandate encryption – in a post-Snowden world – is too tasty an idea to go under the radar.
The suggestion sparking the debate came from HTTPbis chair, Mark …

The privacy-enhancing Do Not Track standard is wobbling badly after barely surviving a no-confidence vote by the W3C consortium.
Held among World Wide Web Committee (W3C) working group members, the vote against drafting a Do-Not-Track (DNT) standard was narrowly defeated by a majority of just five.
W3C members working on the …

The co-founder and CTO of Mozilla Brendan Eich has issued a strongly worded statement decrying moves by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to allow digital rights management plugins to be included in the specifications for HTML5 and future code iterations.
Last year Microsoft, Google and Netflix submitted a proposal to web …

The nine men and one woman who guide the growth and development of internet standards and practices have delivered a stinging rebuke to the US hegemony of the transnational "series of tubes" – and have called for its management to be wrenched away from America's grip and fully internationalized.
After a meeting in Montevideo, …

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has upgraded to full member status of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and as its first act has registered a formal objection to the proposed addition of DRM to the HTML5 specifications.
Its objection stems from the Encrypted Media Extension (EME) which was advanced to first draft …

A coalition of organizations led by the Free Software Foundation has petitioned the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a proposed expansion of the HTML spec that would create a standard digital rights management (DRM) mechanism for the web.
In an open letter addressed to W3C director …

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has established a new centre for its activities in China with the aim of encouraging more local developers and companies to get involved in the global debate to shape the future of the web.
The science and tech-centric Beihang University in Beijing will join MIT, Tokyo’s Keio Uni and the …

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has moved ahead with plans to develop the next two versions of the HTML web markup language, having released new draft specifications of HTML5, HTML 5.1, and related standards.
On Monday, the web standards body published the first "candidate recommendation" of HTML5, bringing the standard to …

Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft may seem like strange bedfellows, but the four have joined forces with six other organizations to create Web Platform Docs, a community-driven site that aims to be a one-stop shop for free web-developer documentation.
"When you want to build something for the web, it's surprisingly …

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) says it's still on track to release the final HTML5 specification in 2014 – and to prove it, it's issued a tentative plan outlining the steps it will take to bring the web markup language to its next version and beyond.
The plan still needs to be approved by the HTML Working Group – naturally …

Microsoft has submitted a proposed standard for real-time web communications to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), in a move that could upset the apple cart for other browser vendors who have been working on their own such standard since early 2011.
Microsoft, like Google, Mozilla, and Opera, all want web browsers to be able …

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has named four people as the new editors of its HTML5 specification, following a recent split that divided the HTML standardization process into two parallel efforts.
The new editors were announced on Wednesday by HTML Working Group co-chair Paul Cotton in a message posted to the W3C's public …

Splitters! That's the cry which may well be echoing out across the web in coming days, as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) have decided to pursue their common agenda of a marvellous new standard for the web by doing things differently.
The split seems amicable …

New technology that stops websites gathering information about users should not be switched on by default, but should require an explicit instruction to begin working, an internet standards body has said.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsible for ensuring that web technology is based on an agreed set of …

The government has asked for views on what problems disabled people face when using the web and other technologies and whether laws and regulations should be changed to improve accessibility.
A web-based forum has been established to ask users how laws and guidance could be improved to enable wider access to information …